HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California (SEC Petition 00221)

 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Designation 

of Additional Members of the Special Exposure Cohort 

under the 

Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 

Designating a Class of Employees 

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 

 Livermore, California 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California (SEC Petition 00221)

Page 2

I. Designation 

I, Sylvia M. Burwell, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

(HHS), designate the class of employees defined in Section II of this report for addition to 

the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC), as authorized under the Energy Employees Occupational 

Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA), 42 U.S.C. § 7384q. 

Date

June 3, 2016 

Sylvia M. Burwell

[Signature on File] 

 

II. Employee Class Definition

All employees of the Department of Energy, its predecessor agencies, and their 

contractors and subcontractors who worked in any area at the Lawrence Livermore 

National Laboratory in Livermore, California, during the period from January 1, 

1974, through December 31, 1989, for a number of work days aggregating at least 

250 work days, occurring either solely under this employment, or in combination with 

work days within the parameters established for one or more other classes of 

employees in the Special Exposure Cohort. 

III. Designation Criteria and Recommendations

Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, for the class defined in Section II of this report, the Secretary 

has determined, and the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health (Board) has 

recommended, that

(1) it is not feasible to estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation dose that the class 

received; and

(2) there is a reasonable likelihood that such radiation dose may have endangered the 

health of members of the class.

The SEC final rule states in 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(1) that it is feasible in two situations to 

estimate the radiation dose that the class received with sufficient accuracy. First, the rule 

states that radiation doses may be estimated with sufficient accuracy if NIOSH has 

established that it has access to sufficient information to estimate the maximum radiation 

dose, for every type of cancer for which radiation doses are reconstructed, that could have 

been incurred under plausible circumstances by any member of the class. Alternatively, 

radiation doses may be estimated with sufficient accuracy if NIOSH has established that it 

has access to sufficient information to estimate the radiation doses of members of the class 

more precisely than a maximum dose estimate.

NIOSH determined that there is insufficient information to estimate the radiation dose of 

individual members of the class with sufficient accuracy under the two abovementioned 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California (SEC Petition 00221)

Page 3

situations. The Board, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, advised the Secretary to designate the 

class as an addition to the SEC in a letter received by the Secretary on May 4, 2016. 

IV. Designation Findings 

Infeasibility of Estimating Radiation Doses with Sufficient Accuracy

The Secretary designates the class of employees covered by this report based upon the 

findings summarized below. 

• NIOSH has identified that principal sources of internal and external radiation exposures 

in Building 251, the Heavy Elements Facility, included isotopes of uranium and thorium; 

highly enriched uranium; plutonium, americium, curium, and neptunium; and other 

exotic materials. Potential exposures to the members of the proposed class involved 

operations such as nuclear tracer fabrication, radiochemical analysis of bomb debris, and 

chemical research into transuranic radionuclides, including work with high-specificactivity sample processing.

• NIOSH has determined that it has insufficient bioassay, air monitoring, and source term 

information to reconstruct internal radiation exposures for LLNL workers during the 

period from January 1, 1974, through December 31, 1989. 

• NIOSH determined that external dose for photon, beta, and neutron exposures can likely 

be reconstructed for all members of the evaluated class for the period from January 1, 

1974, through December 31, 1989. As part of its continuing evaluation of SEC-00221, 

NIOSH will provide a definitive judgment on the feasibility of reconstructing external 

exposures. 

• NIOSH finds that it is feasible to reconstruct occupational medical dose for LLNL 

workers with sufficient accuracy. 

• The Board concurred with the NIOSH finding that it could not reconstruct internal 

radiation exposures for the proposed class of workers for the period from January 1, 

1974, through December 31, 1989. 

• Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(1), NIOSH determined that there is insufficient 

information to either: (1) estimate the maximum radiation dose, for every type of cancer 

for which radiation doses are reconstructed, that could have been incurred under plausible 

circumstances by any member of the class; or (2) estimate the radiation doses of members 

of the class more precisely than a maximum dose estimate. 

• Although NIOSH found that it is not possible to completely reconstruct internal radiation 

doses for the period from January 1, 1974, through December 31, 1989, NIOSH intends 

to use any internal and external monitoring data that may become available for an 

individual claim (and that can be interpreted using existing NIOSH dose-reconstruction 

processes or procedures). Dose reconstructions for individuals employed at LLNL during 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California (SEC Petition 00221)

Page 4

the period from January 1, 1974, through December 31, 1989, but who do not qualify for 

inclusion in the SEC, may be performed using these data as appropriate.

• The Board concurred with NIOSH’s recommendation to add the proposed class of 

workers to the SEC. 

Health Endangerment

The Secretary established the health endangerment determination for the class of employees 

covered by this report based upon the findings summarized below. 

(1) Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3), NIOSH established that there is a reasonable 

likelihood that such radiation doses may have endangered the health of members of 

the class. Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3)(ii), NIOSH specified a minimum 

duration of employment to satisfy this health endangerment criterion as “having been 

employed for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 work days within the 

parameters established for this class or in combination with work days within the 

parameters established for one or more other classes of employees in the Cohort.” 

(2) NIOSH did not identify any evidence from the petitioners or from other resources that 

would establish that the class was exposed to radiation during a discrete incident likely 

to have involved exceptionally high-level exposures, such as a nuclear criticality 

incident, as defined under 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3)(i). 

(3) The Board concurred with NIOSH’s finding that the health of the class may have been 

endangered and defined the class according to the 250-workday requirement specified 

under 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c) (3)(ii).
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California (SEC Petition 00221)

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V. Effect and Effective Date of Designation

The Secretary submits this report on the designation of one additional class to the SEC for 

review by Congress, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 7384l(14)(C)(ii) and 7384q(c)(2)(A), as 

amended by the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 

2005, Pub. L. No. 108-375 (codified as amended in scattered sections of 42 U.S.C.). 

Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384l(14)(C)(ii), as amended by the Ronald W. Reagan National 

Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-375 (codified as amended 

in scattered sections of 42 U.S.C.), the designation in this report will become effective 30 

days after the date of this report’s submission to Congress “unless Congress otherwise 

provides.” 

VI. Administrative Review of Designation

The health endangerment determination of the designation provided in this report may be 

subject to an administrative review within HHS, pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.18(a). On the 

basis of such a review, if the Secretary decides to expand the class of employees covered by 

this designation, the Secretary would transmit a supplementary report to Congress providing 

the expanded employee class definition and the criteria and findings on which the decision 

was based.